How do I set up a perfect bound cover and spine?

A perfect bound cover wraps around the pages, so it is set up as one wide spread: back cover, then spine, then front cover, left to right, with bleed around the whole thing. The inside pages are supplied separately as single pages.

Getting the spine width right

The spine is as thick as the pages inside, so its width depends on the number of pages and the paper weight. Don’t guess it: ask us for the spine width before you finish the cover, and tell us the page count and the paper. There is a cover template on the product page, but the spine width comes from us.

Text on the spine

• Only put text on the spine if it is wide enough to read; very thin spines can’t take it.
• Keep spine text well inside the spine, so a slight shift in binding doesn’t push it onto the front or back.
• In the UK, spine text normally reads from top to bottom.

Inside the cover

The edges of the cover nearest the spine are glued to the pages. Keep text and images clear of that area on the inside front and inside back cover, as it is hidden by the binding.

Pages that cross the middle

Because perfect binding grips the pages at the spine, the inner edge of every page is slightly hidden. If an image runs across two facing pages, keep faces and text out of the middle.

Our artwork check looks at the spine before anything is printed.